Wellington - Post Report Question and Answers
What do people who suffer from environmental or food allergies need to know?
Gluten free products are readily available as kiwis have a high rate of celiac/gluten intolerance. Also, lots of vegan options. - Jan 2021
Nothing that I've heard of. - Jun 2019
Although many restaurants feature allergy-sensitive or gluten-free menus, it's a challenge to shop for a specific diet on a regular basis. If you need lactose-free milk, you've got to check the supermarkets daily as there seems to be a local cabal of tiger moms that goes around buying it in bulk. Seasonal allergies are a danger year-round, so come prepared with a stock of medications. - Mar 2016
If you have seasonal allergies elsewhere, they're going to be very bad at times in Wellington. Our youngest son and I have slight allergies at home, but there our symptoms were off the charts. One NZ fall (February-May) his eczema got so bad that we considered leaving short of tour for medical relief. It's extremely common there (many children struggled to heal open eczema rashes to no avail), and as far as we could tell, they didn't have any solutions for it. Our best relief came from aveeno's baby eczema products (most weren't carried on the local market at the time). This was all due to NZ's very raw environment; my son has since healed and not had an eczema outbreak again. - Apr 2015
